The Income Tax (Employments) (No.17) Regulations 1988

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations, which amend the PAYE Regulations and which come into force on 19th April 1988—

(1) increase from £50 to £100 the amount of tax which an employer may repay to a new employee through the PAYE scheme without reference to the Inspector and the limit above which the Department of Employment (or, in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health and Social Services) must inform the Inspector of a notional repayment due to an unemployed claimant of social security benefits, part of which is taxable (regulation 3);

(2) reduce from 90 to 30 the number of days from the date on which a determination under regulation 29 of the PAYE Regulations becomes final and conclusive, after which, if the tax due under the determination is not paid by the employer, the Commissioners of Inland Revenue may direct that the tax may be recovered from the employee; and provide that the interest made payable on the determination by these regulations and due on that tax shall also be recovered from the employee (regulation 4);

(3) provide for interest to be payable on unpaid tax which is the subject of a determination under regulation 29 of the PAYE Regulations; the interest will run from the 19th April after the fiscal year to which the determination relates until payment (but will not run from any date earlier than 19th April 1988) and will be at the rate applicable to unpaid tax due from individuals; the interest will be recoverable in the same way as unpaid tax (regulation 5);

(4) extend the provisions for the inspection of PAYE employers' records by enabling an authorised officer to inspect such records at such time as he may reasonably require at an agreed place, or, in default of agreement, the place where the records are usually kept, or, if there is no such place, the employer’s principal place of business; and permit the officer to take copies of, or remove, documents (providing copies where the documents are reasonably required for the proper conduct of a business) (regulation 6);

(5) extend the definitions of “benefit” and “taxable benefit” to take account of income support introduced as a replacement for supplementary benefit from April 1988 by the Social Security Act 1986 (regulation 7).